Day: September 15, 2020

Bannon joined forces with Chinese billionaire whose case has divided Trump’s allies

Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)

Bannon joined forces with Chinese billionaire whose case has divided Trump’s allies

Bannon has told others that in his role as chief White House strategist he personally shielded the billionaire.

“I was the protector,” he told The Wire China in an interview conducted with the publication before his arrest. “When I was inside the White House, I took the files and put them in my office and said, ‘Whoever wants this guy, this guy is a pretty valuable hombre.’ “

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Bannon’s financial relationship with Guo began about the same time. According to an internal memo obtained by The Post, sometime before the end of 2017, a company linked to Guo loaned Bannon $150,000.

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In August 2018, Bannon signed a one-year deal to consult for Guo Media, owned by a company incorporated in Delaware, for $1 million. Bannon’s contract was first reported and posted online by Axios.

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Guo told The Post that Bannon had been removed from his role as chairman of the board after his arrest and played no part in raising funds for the company.

However, the men’s partnership has continued. Bannon was released from custody last month on a $5 million bond while he awaits a trial scheduled for May.

Citigroup, Closely Tied to the Clintons, Had a Senior V.P. Outed as a QAnon Promoter, a Conspiracy Group that Reviles the Clintons

Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)

Citigroup, Closely Tied to the Clintons, Had a Senior V.P. Outed as a QAnon Promoter, a Conspiracy Group that Reviles the Clintons

There is heavy irony in Citigroup now being outed as the employer of Gelinas, whose LinkedIn resume (also now removed) indicated he had worked for the bank for the past 17 years. Citigroup has a heavy history with the Clintons. President Bill Clinton’s Treasury Secretary was Robert Rubin. After Rubin helped to engineer the 1999 repeal of the 1933 banking legislation known as the Glass-Steagall Act, allowing federally-insured banks to merge with Wall Street trading casinos, Rubin became a member of the Citigroup Board of Directors and reaped $120 million in compensation over the next decade. Citigroup desperately needed the repeal of this legislation because it had already illegally merged Citicorp with Salomon Brothers the prior year.

Sandy Weill, the Co-CEO at Citigroup in 1999, who lobbied for the repeal of Glass-Steagall, was given a commemorative pen from the Clinton signing ceremony that repealed the legislation. Just nine years after the repeal, Wall Street banks like Citigroup blew up Wall Street, taking down the U.S. economy in the process.

Related:

How Conspiracy Theories Are Shaping the 2020 Election—and Shaking the Foundation of American Democracy

Democrats Go All-Out for Israel

Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)

Democrats Go All-Out for Israel

Israel for its part has played its cards carefully. It knows that either Biden or Trump will do whatever it wants, but it has deferred its planned annexation of much of the Palestinian West Bank, which will now take place after the election. It did that knowing that otherwise some liberals in the Democratic Party might try to turn Israel into an issue and split the Jewish community while also alienating Jewish donors and some Jewish voters if the annexation had taken place. After November 3rd, no matter who wins Israel will benefit and will have a free hand to do anything it wishes to the Palestinians. Or perhaps one should say the “remaining Palestinians” until they are all gone.

Sweden’s chief epidemiologist: ‘We are happy with our strategy’ on Covid-19

Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)

Sweden’s chief epidemiologist: ‘We are happy with our strategy’ on Covid-19

In an interview with FRANCE 24, Swedish chief epidemiologist Dr. Anders Tegnell, the man in charge of Sweden’s strategy to fight Covid-19, defends his country’s specific approach.

While the vast majority of countries around the world imposed strict lockdowns on their citizens and often made face masks compulsory in enclosed public spaces, Sweden refused to lock down its population and instead chose to rely on its citizens’ sense of responsibility and civic duty.

Today, with low mortality and a falling number of Covid-19 cases, Dr. Anders Tegnell, the architect of this strategy, hails the policy and says he has “some confidence” for the future.

James ANDRE, 11/09/2020.

State Department Announces That Great Firewall For The US; Blocks Chinese Apps & Equipment

Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)

State Department Announces That Great Firewall For The US; Blocks Chinese Apps & Equipment

Forget banning TikTok, the Trump State Department just suggested it wants to basically ban China from the internet. Rather than promoting an open internet and the concept of openness, it appears that under this administration we’re slamming the gates shut and setting up the Great American Firewall for the internet. Under the guise of what it calls the Clean Network to Safeguard America, last night Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced a program that is full of vague statements, that could, in practice, fragment the internet.

This is incredibly disappointing on multiple levels. While other countries — especially China, but also Iran and Russia — have created their own fragmented internet, the US used to stand for an open internet across the globe. Indeed, for whatever complaints we had about the State Department during the Obama administration (and we had many complaints), its commitment to an open internet was very strong and meaningful. That’s clearly now gone. The “Clean Network to Safeguard America” consists of five programs that can be summed up as “fuck you China.”

[2018] The thin-skinned president who made it illegal to criticize his office

Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)

The thin-skinned president who made it illegal to criticize his office

Adams and his Federalist Party supporters in Congress passed the Alien and Sedition Acts under the guise of national security, supposedly to safeguard the nation at a time of preparing for possible war with France. The “Alien” part of the law allowed the government to deport immigrants and made it harder for naturalized citizens to vote. But the law mainly was designed to mute backers of the opposition Democratic-Republican Party led by Thomas Jefferson, who also happened to be the vice president. Jefferson had finished second to Adams in the 1796 presidential election and again ran against him in 1800.

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Just one decade after adoption of the U.S. Constitution, the United States had survived its first constitutional crisis. At stake, Jefferson said in his 1801 inauguration speech, was the right of citizens “to think freely and to speak and write what they think.” But there would continue to be many more challenges to these freedoms in the young democracy’s coming years.